Project: Nintendo IS
by Remited
Summary: Nintendo's new virtual reality console, the Nintendo Immersion System has been announced for E3, that is until... a certain impatient fan decides to steal it. He eventually finds out that Nintendo's new VR headset, is much too real than he would have hoped.
1. Chapter 1

**OK, hear me out but this story might be a bit weird, maybe. Just… wait to see what happens. And for disclaimers, I do not own Ever Oasis or anything Nintendo related, they are owned by, well… Nintendo. Ok, let's start!**

* * *

 **Nintendo's E3 section (11:00 PM)**

In the year 2085, gaming and technology has risen to be the most dependable resource for mankind. So much so that nothing will stop it. Gaming especially, one of the most iconic game companies, Nintendo has announced a new virtual reality console that will change lives for many fans. Called the 'Nintendo Immersion System', or 'NIS' for short, it has been promised to be the ticket for many gamers lives for a new way of playing. VR has been around since the last century but hasn't gotten past the point of true immersion.

That is until Nintendo has broken the mold and will include the true immersion that players have been craving for. Just this week, Nintendo has declared that they will be having it on show at E3 and tonight is the night before they will give players a chance to experience it hands on.

 **Outside the E3 building (11:01 PM)**

"So, this is E3, huh?" A young man in his early 20's states as he stands on top of an adjacent building to the one he's looking at. Wearing a black beanie covering most his brown wavy hair with the exception of the back of his hair and his bangs that is split in half to uncover his blue eyes. He is also wearing a black slick, slim jacket with a grey A-shirt underneath. With that he's wearing black slick pants with black shoes. All black, with all of it meaning something. He reaches into his black hip pouch and opens it to put on his black fingerless gloves and his goggles, "And in there is a bunch of new games and systems."

He smirks as he turns on his goggles with it being hi tech with plenty different features, so, he switches it to X-ray vision mode, "But all I'm after is… aha." He sees Nintendo's new system in the back corner, and finding it, he chuckles, "Sorry all the other systems, but this one is the one I want and I cannot wait for tomorrow, so… I'm snagging it now." He puts the goggles on his head and rushes off closer to the E3 building, well, at least to the edge of the building he is standing on. As he gets as close to the E3 building as possible, he reaches into his hip pouch and pulls out a little box with a button on top. He walks a bit to look for a secure spot to activate it. "Here should be good." He finds a corner where the traffic lights are in the city, and he presses the button and the box spits out wires from both ends of it where it ties itself to the parallel poles of the traffic lights.

As he has created a pathway to the E3 building, the more trickier aspect of the job is to cross it without falling, he takes a deep breath and exhales, "I may not be a stealthy racoon, but nothing is stopping me from getting to that building." He begins to stand on top of the guard way of the building and begins to tightrope walk his way to the E3 building, "This is really nerve wrecking… I can't believe I'm actually doing this." He says to himself as he spreads out his arms and begins treading carefully on the wire.

Even though the two buildings are merely two stories, the traffic is what's causing the nervousness, one slip up and he could fall into traffic and die. Knowing that, he keeps a calm face and keeps his feet aligned with one another as they walk on the wire, even balance and weight distribution to both sides of his center of gravity.

He continues to walk on the wire, being half way there, "There we go… easy does it…" He thinks to himself as he continues. A car begins blaring their horn as they pass through heavy traffic, making the gaming thief slip up, he begins losing his balance on the wire, "S-shit…" He mutters as he tries to keep himself balanced, his shoes slips, but he catches himself before he fell, "D-damn…" He whispers.

He tries to climb back up but he's worried about falling off, he begins to inch across on he hangs from the wire, "Ok… let's do this, then." He thinks to himself as he moves his hands along the wire to traverse across. Surprisingly, no one sees him as dark clothes mesh with the dark sky and they are mostly focusing on the road anyway.

 **On top of the E3 building (11:20 PM)**

The gaming thief pants as he catches his breath from the exhilarating experience of pulling a failed thievius raccoonus. He looks to see the top building window and heads over to see if he can find what he has been acting like a monkey for, "Where are you, my sweet?" He pulls down his goggles and looks around the building in X-ray vision mode, "Ah good, there it is. Just at the second story corner." He pulls his goggles back and inspects the windows, "Security touch sensors, so opening the windows will cause the alarm. Well, lucky for you… my boot is security touch proof!" He kicks the windows as hard as he could and it shatters, he winces to see if the alarms have gone off, it doesn't. He chuckles at his victory, "I didn't just take a gamble there. Nope!" He says in his head as he sweatdrops a little. He goes to retrieve his wire box as he holds the wire back a bit and it just retracts itself back to its owner. "Just like a measuring tape." He compares.

He then pulls on the wire of his box and ties it to the edge of the window, making sure he doesn't accidently brush any of his skin on it to trigger the alarm. He grabs the other side of the wire and pulls it along to the hole he just made, "This says I could just use this as a bungee cord or my money back." He whispers as he begins to jump down the whole grabbing on the wire.

 **Inside the E3 building (11:25 PM)**

As the wire box pulls its owner down slowly, making ratchet noises, the gaming thief finds himself in the middle of all the new gaming stuff, not to be shown off until tomorrow morning, "I can't believe I'm here. I'm about to achieve greatness." He says in his head, all anxious and giddy to finally get what he came here for. He walks around the building stealthily, looking for his prize, the Nintendo IS.

He drops down as he reaches the floor, he walks over to the corner, he puts his goggles again, switching them to night vision mode, "Now… ah, there she be!" He exclaims in his head as he sees the glorious new virtual reality console made by Nintendo. "And… it's mine." He says as he sneaks himself towards it.

Walking towards Nintendo's E3 booth, he pulls out something from his hip pouch, all wrapped in a blanket, "Here's something to replace it." He unwraps the blanket, carrying a red and black headset, "This freaking poor excuse of VR, the Virtual Boy." He begins to do the swap, quickly switching the NIS with the Virtual boy, he places that in the stand and wraps up the Nintendo IS in the blanket, and he takes all the cords that plugs the NIS up, unscrewing all that is needed to in order to actually take it with him as it was tied to the booth and all stuff it into his hip pouch.

"Let's get the hell out of here." As he begins to walk out, the crappy virtual boy slips off from the stand as it didn't fit the cradle that the NIS was on and it falls on the floor, triggering the cameras, seeing the bright red primitive system and the alarm blares, "Shit!" He rushes to his wire and begins climbing out as fast as he could.

 **Outside the E3 building (11:27 PM)**

The gaming thief climbs out, he sees guards coming at him, "Hold it right there! Stay where you are and surrender yourself!"

They caught him as he was climbing out, he has his hands up, the guards state firmly, "Good, now come towards us nice and easy…"

The caught thief walks slowly backwards to the edge. The guards catch this, "Wrong way, idiot!" They rush towards him.

The thief jumps down the building, falling down a green grassy hill, rolling down it as he picks ups speed again and begins running off as fast as he could, "Segata Sanshiro! Segata Sanshiro!" He shouts as he charges away from the guards.

The guards angrily shout as they look at him running away from the top of the E3 building, "God damn iiit!" Calming down, one guard asks the other, "Call the police and have them arrest that guy!"

And guards get down to it, or else E3 is forever ruined! Or at least Nintendo's E3.

 **Gaming Thief's Home (12:00 AM)**

He returns to his home, laughing maniacally at his score, "I finally got it! It's mine!" He runs to his room and begins locking it, applying all the locks to his door so that no potential police could get to him easily. He unzips his hip pouch and pulls out the Nintendo Immersion System from underneath the blankets, he plugs the cords into their respective sockets, puts on the headset even though his beanie and goggles are still on, he is too excited to even change clothes, "Finally… I get to try it out… first one, baby!" The headset locks onto his head as he puts it on, making a hissing noise as it does so.

As he stands up, he smiles, reaching to the power button, he activates the Nintendo IS, it begins humming to life, it begins speaking, "Welcome to Nintendo Immersion System, player! In a new world of gaming, we humbly bring you the first ever real VR, controllerless and input free. We begin to scan your body throughout." The console hums in a tune as it begins scanning the player's body, "Scanning complete. You may be welcomed to use the Nintendo IS and as doing so, your body will begin the lack of movement as your central nervous system will mostly focus on gameplay so if you are standing, you will fall in 3… 2… 1… now."

The player's body goes limp as the console shuts off his movement, he falls on the floor hard as he wears the Nintendo Immersion System. "Thank-a you so much for playing the Nintendo Immersion System! Wahoo!" A famous Italian plumber voice speaks through the console.

 **Character Creation Room (Time N/A)**

The room begins to build itself with white glowing blocks and coding, the room itself is a small little oasis like area with palm trees surrounding it and bright blue skies. In the middle is a stepping stone in the oasis where the thief appears in the same white glowing blocks and coding, with no change in his appearance, minus the headset, of course. "I… did it. I'm in the game!" He looks around and sees the room, "So cool! What game is this?"

A voice begins speaking, "Welcome player, to the Nintendo Immersion System tech demo! In a world where it builds itself as you play, you will travel in the world of Ever Oasis, a beloved game franchise made by the people who brought you the Mana series. You can discover endless deserts and meet a cast of true to life characters, it is certainly a tech demo where possibilities are limitless!"

The player asks, "Ever Oasis? Never heard of it." He then sees a hologram screen in front of him, where he chooses a species to play as. "Whoa! This looks really cool!"

The voice continues, "You can choose from the 3 of the 4 species you can play as." Showing the player, the species close up, "The seedling is a small humanoid species where they take pride in their oasis and their bloom booths, if you love managing, stocking and becoming rich for the sake of your oasis, then the seedling race is for you!"

The player is shown a yes or no option for the seedling, "So… I get to sit around and become a merchant? Nah…" He taps on no and the option slides away from his face as it shows the other species.

It's a big cyclops looking creature with a hammer and a scorpion stinger on its forehead, "The Serkah, the scorpion/cyclops race with great strength and big appetites. If you desire a race with these qualities then the Serkah is for you!"

The player bluntly says, "Nah."

The voice then shows a rabbit/cat like creature, "How about the Lagora race? Swift and adorable as they look, don't be fooled as they can tend to be pretty sneaky. If the-"

The player interrupts the voice and happily exclaims, "I pick the Lagora race! That sounds so like me!" He presses yes on the Lagora. As he does so, the options disappear and so does the screen, "So… what was the other option and why couldn't I find more about it?"

The voice replies, "The Drauk race are female only and considering you are male, you cannot be one." Answering as if it actually heard the player.

The gaming thief nods, "That makes sense…" He notices that the room begins to disappear into the white blocks and code that it was made out of, "I guess I'm going now."

The voice exclaims, "Have fun venturing in the world of Ever Oasis, young Lagora!"

And with that… he is sent into the world!

 **Dark cavern (Time Unknown)**

The world begins to build as the scenery is of a dark cavern area, with big quartz gems and rocks everywhere, all possibly leading to a passageway or a dead end, that's for the player to find out. After the game generates the world, he gets sent in via white blocks and code, his body is of a rabbit/cat creature, with long ears, a furry curled up tail, semi pointy snout. He has brown fur, matching the color of his hair and his bangs are now a patch of long fur on his forehead that droops down to the left side, slightly covering his left eye. Around his eyes, mouth, down to his paws, feet, neck, belly and the tip of his tail, his fur is lighter colored as if it is simulating skin.

He looks around his body, seeing that he has turned into this species, "Wow! So cool! I'm a Lagora!" He notices that his clothes are the same but fit to the Lagora body, "This VR is so amazing, I still have my thief clothes on!" He looks around the cavern seeing the scenery, "The textures are so realistic, my fur detail, the rocks, the reflectiveness of the crystals… everything!" He then picks up a rock and hurls it at a direction, "The physics is spot on… it feels so real!" He jumps up and down to test the gravity. He takes a deep breath and exhales, "The air… just like a cold cavern should be like… it's so amazing! I gotta explore some more!" He continues towards the cavern.

As he walks along the dark corridor of the cavern, slightly illuminated by the crystals, he runs his hands along the walls, feeling them, "I can actually feel the walls as if they are really real walls… I love this game!" He chuckles as he feels good about this whole experience.

 **Dark Cavern (Several minutes later)**

The young Lagora continues on, what seems to be a while now, "So, is the demo timed or… what? Because, I think I should have timed out by how long it's taking me to get to the…" He then sees harsh lights as he covers his eyes with his arm, finally making his way out of the cavern and into the desert, "Whoa… it's so big… I don't even know where to start." He feels the harsh heat of the desert, the sun on his face blaring at him, "Even the temperature is of a desert… I can't even begin to understand how they did all this." He squats down to feel the sand, grabbing some and have it pour out of his hand, "I can feel each individual sand, no doubt, this is really true to life as it said. And I love it!" He stands up, stretches as he sees the endless world ahead of him.

 **Just right outside the cavern (Time: Day)**

The happy Lagora runs along the desert, frolicking about as he enjoys his time playing this real-life game, "So… what do I do now?" He looks around to see where he is, "Now… my location." He looks over and sees that just outside the cavern, is a cliff, not the high up but just beyond that is a settlement, "Hey, I like this… a place to crash at right past my spawn point, a bit linear but I guess for a kid's game, it'll do." He continues to walk towards the cliff to get a better look of the settlement, it's a small settlement of several reptilian like creatures, all female from the looks of it, "So, these are the Drauk that the voice was telling me about. Wow… they look pretty friendly to me. And, I guess they must be AIs since no one else has this headset." He walks closer to the edge to get a better look.

 **Outside the Drauk Settlement (A few minutes later)**

The Lagora keeps looking at them doing normal, everyday things, like harvesting, carrying crops and maintaining their settlement, repairing what needs to be repaired, he also notices that there looks to be Drauks that are keeping an eye out for things beyond their settlement, "What's going on? Some of them looks to be sharp, what's out there that's so dangerous to be doing this?" He begins sweating as the heat gets to him, "Man… these clothes don't work in this weather…" He begins letting air into his jacket as he tries to keep cool.

He begins hearing the two Drauk guards saying something, "The Lagora clan must be out there. They won't just swindle us and be done with it. They must be planning something!" They grip their spears tightly as they fill up with anger.

The peeping Lagora at the top of the cliff listen on as his ears twitch, "Lagora clan…? I'm one of those and they did something to these Drauk. So that means…"

One of the Drauk civilians see this Lagora, "A spy!" She points as she alerts the guards.

The guard immediately turn to the Lagora dressed in black, "We won't let you escape!" The rush off to the Lagora at full speed.

The young Lagora sighs as this is a familiar sight, "Here we go again…" He begins to run back to the cavern he came out from, the sand begins to slide to his feet, making him slip, "S-stupid shoes! They don't work for sand! Only concrete!" He slides off the cliff and falls right at their settlement.

The two guards make it to the defenseless Lagora and stab their spears right next to his both sides, making an cross with them, "You thought you could escape, spy? What's your purpose here?"

The confused Lagora just lays there, "Um… spy? I'm not a spy, I'm just an adorable Lagora, ok?"

The two green Drauk guards just glare at him, "We aren't fooled and take one step and we won't hesitate to stab you in the chest."

Hearing that, the Lagora's eyes widen, "This… is a kid's game, right?"

Ignoring his words, they take their spears out of the ground and grab the Lagora with them, dragging him towards their tribe, "We will see what our leader will do with you." Putting him dangerously close to their spears, they carry him to the center of their settlement.

The captured Lagora head is caught between their sharp spears, grabbing it like chopsticks, "O-ow… that actually legibly hurts."

 **The Center of the Drauk Settlement (Several Minutes later)**

The captured Lagora is restrained, with his hands tied in a rope, against the spike they put in the ground just for him, the Drauk civilians and the guards huddle around him, giving him angry looks at him. "W-what the hell is going on?" The confused Lagora asks.

One of the guards look and see the chief return, "There she is and let's hope she won't give you mercy, Lagora."

They begin to let her through, her scales are dark blue, she wears armor like the guards but with a desert skirt for when she isn't in combat, she stands with her golden spear as opposed to the wooden spears with stone point at the end of it for the guards. She wears a fancy headdress with gold earrings and hair like appendages that are actually reptilian frills, just like the rest of the Drauk, not to mention that the many of the Drauk have toned thighs, which shows just how fit they are, not to mention tall and slender, just like the rest of them. She begins to observe the Lagora, "I've never seen clothes like these before, are they native to your race, Lagora?"

The Lagora sweatdrops as this answer will definitely give it away, "That's… classified."

The Drauk chief didn't like that response and kicks him hard in the gut, "Untie him and restrain all of his limbs!"

The two guards place their arm on their chest in a salute, "Yes, chief!" They untie the Lagora and then drag him off to tie him up better.

 **Several minutes later**

The now almost unclothed Lagora is tied by all ends of his limbs by rope with each of them pulling to a stake, real tight. His jacket, goggles, beanie and shoes have been taken by the Drauk tribe with each of them trying them on to see what they do, with the jacket not fitting one so you can see a midriff on her, "T-this is embarrassing. Damn! When will this stupid demo time out!" He shouts.

The Drauk chief walk to the Lagora, stating, "Even when you not telling us what your clothes mean, my Drauk tribe know that these are clothes of a spy. They're all dressed black so you did plan to sneak into our settlement. And what is in that bag you are holding? Are they weapons?" She begins to unclip the Lagora's hip pouch.

The tied Lagora seethes through his teeth, "Crap… I'm so dead…"

The chief unzips it to find out that it's empty, "You are carrying nothing in here. You must be a pretty lousy spy or you have hidden your tools somewhere. Where are they?!" She points her spear at his chest.

The Lagora thinks to himself, "That's a good question, I guess the NIS just scanned the surface of my body without scanning the contents or it just couldn't scan items not clothes."

The chief gets impatient with the Lagora's muttering, "You disgust me. You come here to try to loot us and you feel no remorse for your actions."

The Lagora replies bluntly, "Listen, lady, I don't have a single clue on what you are going on about. I am my own man. I'm not with no freaking tribe."

The angered chief pokes the Lagora with her spear, "And just how are you going to get us to believe you? Your proof clearly states that you are trying to rob us."

The Lagora takes a deep breath and explains himself, "Well, yes I'm wearing thief clothes and yes I'm a Lagora, but I'm not with any tribe and if I was, I wouldn't want to rob this pity settlement."

That statement has driven the chief to the edge as she kicks the Lagora so hard that she breaks off his ropes, she continues to step on him, grinding her foot on his body.

The two guards come in to settle her down, "He's not worth it, chief Asiya." Trying to pull her away from the now crushed Lagora body, still alive, though.

Asiya exhales as she calms down, "You honestly make me sick, Lagora. You do not feel the least guilty of what your kind has done to us."

The Lagora groans, trying to get up a little, "I… don't know what you're talking about… and… what about any other Lagora that just happens to be passing by? What about them?"

Asiya calms down just enough to answer that question, "They simply go around, avoiding our tribe, they are aware of how untrustworthy we Drauk are to their kind. It isn't their fault, but it's how it is around here."

The Lagora begins to get up, but the guards push him down, "Try to escape and we'll kill you."

The Lagora chuckles a bit, despite how much pain he's in from Asiya's punishment, "S-so… what will you do with me, then?"

One of the guards mentioned, "If we could, we would put you in a stew, it at least would cover a bit of our food supply that your kind has stolen from us, but we aren't monsters."

Then the Lagora casually suggests, "Or… you could banish me from here and I could never come back."

Asiya gets an idea, "No… you will alert the Lagora tribe if we let you go, instead… this Lagora is hereby going to serve us against his will, until he has paid us back in full and more!"

He sweatdrops and pauses for a bit and replies, "Wait… what? I did say that I wasn't part of that damn tribe, didn't I?! Why do I have to fix what they have done?"

Asiya kicks the Lagora again, "Because what you are saying isn't worth anything and how dare you talk to me like that?! You will be working and that's the end of that!" She then gets one of the guards to grab a rope that he is tied to, "You make sure he works and if he doesn't, discipline him."

The guard giggles, "As you wish, chief." She begins to drag him along, "Let's go, you got a lot of work to do."

As the Lagora gets dragged he begins shouting, "I didn't play this game to work! Log out! Escape, ALT, Delete!" Nothing happens, "No! I hate this!"

The guard pulls him towards some rocks, "Move those out of our settlement! And next, you'll begin gardening." She kicks him towards the rocks.

The Lagora asks, "Do I at least get a break?" Panting, out of breath as he sloops down.

The guard smacks him in the head with her spear, "No! Now, stop complaining and work!"

The slave Lagora rolls his eyes, "Well, Soorry!"

The guard kicks him hard, "How dare you use my name so casually!" With her name being Saari.

And with that… the Lagora begins working to the bone for these hardcore Drauk, even if he did nothing wrong, he still has to pay the price. Moving heavy rocks so sluggishly, planting seeds and watering them in the blazing heat. He is abused by the Drauk as they throw stuff at him and kick him without mercy, he is at the point of a breakdown, not mentally, but physically.

 **Drauk Settlement (Time: Night)**

The guard named Saari finishes the Lagora slave's labor and ties him to his pole, "There. You get some rest. Now, be quiet and stay there until morning, you'll have more stuff to do by then. Chief Asiya might have something special planned for you." She chuckles as she begins to leave.

The Lagora asks as he looks completely trashed, "Where's my clothes?! I'm still without my jacket and it's freezing!"

Saari thinks about it and then replies, "My sister loves it and won't give it back so… bye." With her sister being the other guard, she then nonchalantly waves to the Lagora as she leaves him to freeze in the desert night cold.

The cold and spirit broken Lagora lays on the cold ground, shivering, "I-I-I should have been the seedling, I might have gotten praise instead…" He stutters as she shivers, "S-s-s-s-screw… this… g-g-g-g-game…"

 **The next morning**

Saari wakes the Lagora up with a morning kick in the gut, "Wake up! You got a lot of work to do!"

The Lagora complains, "So… tired… so… hungry…" He could barely stand up.

Saari sighs at the lowly Lagora, and out of sheer pity, she throws him a piece of fruit, "There, now shut up and eat that quickly. You got a lot to do today!"

The Lagora grabs the fruit and munches on it fast, "T-this tastes really good!" He continues to eat it.

Saari begins to rush him, yelling at the Lagora, "Hurry up! I know you're doing this on purpose!"

The Lagora finishes up and begins licking his paws, "I still have feelings, you know." He begins to get up, "So… what am I doing today?" He says, sounding a bit depressed.

Saari catches this and smiles, "Your spirit is finally broken? Good. It's just going to get a lot worse from here on out. Now, for today, I'm handing your reigns over to our chief. You better listen to her every command and do it right as she tells you." She then unties the Lagora and pulls him along, yanking his rope to get him to move quickly.

 **The Drauk Chief's Home (Few moments later)**

Saari brings the Lagora inside, "I brought the Lagora prisoner, Chief Asiya." She goes to hand his ropes to Asiya who is lounging on her chair.

Asiya nods who then salutes, "Good, Saari. You are now dismissed."

Saari salutes back and then leaves the two. Asiya then looks at the Lagora with a fierce expression, "You got a name, Lagora? I have to call you something if you are going to work for me, correct?"

The Lagora goes and tries to come up with a name, seeing if he wants to make a lie or if he wants to tell the truth and say his real name, "Oh, it's Eric, yeah." He says nonchalantly, "A pretty unusual name, right? It has to mean that I'm not an ordinary Lagora."

Asiya just yawns as she half hears Eric, "Oh, it's unusual, yes, but I don't really care. It's probably a typical Lagora name." She waves her hands to fan herself, "Get me cool, Eric."

His expression changes to a confused look, "What? You just… blow that off? Eric is not a Lagora name! In fact… I'm not even a real Lagora!"

Asiya looks at Eric with a half pissed, and half annoyed, "OK, humor me. Just what are you then if you're not a Lagora?"

Eric chuckles, "Well, glad you asked! I'm what you call a hu-" He gets cut off by a sharp pain in his side, "Gah! W-what?"

Asiya raises her brow, "A what? Spit it out."

Eric shouts, "I'm a hu-" And instead of the sharp pain, it's as if he just got struck by lightning now, "G-gah!" He falls down.

Asiya sighs, "Humble? You? A Lagora? If that's what you're going to say then you are wasting your time. I used to trust your kind, thinking you all are humble but you all just stab us and the back. I'm bored and hot now so fan me, now!"

Eric groans as he tries to recover from the unexplained pain he was delivered by an unknown force, "F-fine…" He begins to get up and gets the big leaf beside Asiya and begins to fan her, "I got in the middle of some racist snake ladies that I don't want to be part of." He half mumbles in boredom.

Asiya stretches as she gets cooled off, "Like it or not, you are now a part of it. Next, you'll be rubbing my feet, I worked hard all day so they'll need to be rejuvenated."

Eric makes a grimace, "That's… not my thing." He says in his head as he might get punished even more if he actually said it out loud.

Asiya commands, "Fan faster."

Eric speeds up his arms as he blows more wind towards Asiya with the leaf, "As you wish, ol' great snaky one!" He says sarcastically.

"Faster!" Asiya shouts, commanding the Lagora servant.

Eric speeds it up, he pants as he gets tired from the fanning, "When will the nightmare end?!" He screams in his head.

 **Much…much later**

"You may stop." Asiya commands she begins to take off her shoes, showing her feet, "You know what time it is?"

Eric pants as he relaxes his arms, "Something that I won't like?"

"Yes. Rub my feet now." She shoves her feet at Eric's chest, ramming them at his ribcage.

"O-ow… damn it." He begins to rub them, "G-great… I always wanted to play a game where I rub some psycho lizard bitch's feet…" Eric states sarcastically in his head.

Asiya begins sighing contently as she lays down all comfortably, "Hate to admit this, but… you're really good at this… I think I'll make you do this more often."

Eric's mood is so down that he doesn't even respond to that statement, just an annoyed expression.

 **Even much later**

After Eric's constant Drauk feet rubbing, Asiya commands, "OK, you may stop." She pulls her feet back as she looks at it, flexing her toes, "You did ok."

Eric collapses on the ground, looking very tired, both emotionally and physically, "Gaaaaah…" He groans.

Asiya begins to put her shoes back on, and gets up from her chair, "Alright, I'm going to go do some village management, I want you to wait here and don't touch anything. I'll be right back for you to rub my feet again~" She says that playfully this time as she knows it'll get to Eric, she runs off as she grabs her spear.

Eric lays there for a good few seconds and then sits up with a traumatized look on his face, "What did I just witness? I'm seriously going to die here… and I don't even know what happens if I die in this game, the abuse feels so real that I don't want to find out." He gets up and looks around Aisya's house, "She seriously forced me to rub her smelly feet. I didn't sign up for that at all!" He looks at his paws that are just tainted with feet smell, "Just… what the hell did these Lagora do to them?" He begins to look around Aisya's house out of boredom as he tries to find these answers.

He begins to look every nook and cranny for a sign of something that relates to the racism, "Come on…" Eric looks underneath Asiya's chair, "Huh?" He sees a leaf green journal made out of, well… leaves. "Is this…?" He begins to pull it out from under the chair, "It's her diary!"

Eric looks around to see if there's any nearby Drauks around, "No one's here… don't mind if I do." He opens the book and begins looking through it, "Lagoras are evil… Lagoras are evil…" He says as he flips through pages and pages explaining how Lagoras are evil, "Aww… that's cute, pictures of her stabbing Lagoras… nice…" He then goes to the beginning of the diary, "Oh…" He begins to read what basically explains some kind of visit.

Eric reads the journal entry, " _Today, a cute little Lagora came to visit our lovely settlement, he complemented how well constructed we are and how great a chief I was. I later found out that he is the chief of his own settlement, knowing that, I begin to gleefully ask him how he runs his village. He looked at me with really sad eyes, I felt that he was hurting inside, I asked him what his worries were. He then told me that his people are starving and dying of thirst, he even said he trekked across the hot desert looking for a village to turn to in their time of need. I felt sorry for these cute little Lagoras, I decided what better choice of action than to offer to lend them some nourishments and water for them. He then said that he couldn't as we labored so hard for these nice gifts from the heavens. He begins to cough as he then explained that he didn't even have water coming here, I was so hurting for these guys, I then boldly exclaim that I wouldn't take no for an answer! I then ask the chief of the Lagoras to come down to my village for a feast on us and they can take some seeds and water with them to grow their own food. He was so overwhelmed with joy that he embraced me with tears running down his face. I then begin to cry as well. It was the nicest thing I ever did for them, he said. This made me feel really good about myself as a chief of a hardworking village."_ Eric finishes reading that entry, his eyes widen, "Wow…"

Eric looks around some more just in case a Drauk manages to catch him reading this, he sees no one so he continues reading, he flips through some later entries that continues the story, " _The chief of the Lagora tribe is so funny, he keeps telling us some hilarious jokes as we ate together in the middle of my village, the Drauk and the Lagora seems to have gotten so well along with one another. After our feast, I asked the Lagora chief that once they have grown their food, we should open up a trade way with each other to help each other out, it's the least you could do, and it's a way to keep our bond with one another. He said, after a delightful smile that he'd love to do this. I felt so giddy that I made friends with a nearby tribe, I couldn't contain my excitement for my new friends! I hope I meet more, nice Lagoras like them, maybe even more races would like to visit our village._ _ **"**_ Eric frowns a little knowing it's going to end badly really shortly.

Eric can't handle the suspense of when the betrayal actually happened, he flips to the next page, he immediately sees the sharp contrast of what he read compared to what he's seeing before his eyes, "Oh…" He frowns some more as he reads, " _These… Lagoras… robbed us! They came here, with torches, burning everything, they could that wasn't of use to them, they stole everything! They felt so happy doing it, too, I was just standing there as it happened, unable to process why they did this, I was in tears as they just took all of our food and water, they even tried to assault us for no reason, with wide grins on their faces, laughing. The chief of the Lagora walked, smiled evilly at me and said, 'You really think we liked you? We just wanted your stuff, we aren't dying of thirst or hunger at all, you all are so gentle and gullible that it's the perfect score! We aren't even a tribe, we're a gang of Lagora thieves, stealing from other settlements and doing whatever we want! My advice for you Drauks… never trust a Lagora, we all are bad! Thanks again, fools!' He just left with everything. It was an ambush so we really couldn't get the time to defend ourselves. I don't know what to do, we'll be suffering for a while trying to regrow everything and rebuild everything they burned down. How could they do this to us?! I don't understand! I'm… never going to trust another Lagora again for as long as I live!_ "

Eric's face is filled with sadness as he reads this, "T-they are just AIs… right? Can they… feel? Why do I… feel bad for them?" Eric feels something that he never felt in years, the true immersion in a video game, where he actually feels like he's really part of something grand that makes him feel for everything around him in it. He stands there as he process all of this, "I…"

Asiya comes back into her house, seeing what Eric is holding, "That's my diary! You read it!" She readies her spear, "I'll kill you!" She charges at Eric at full speed, with complete hatred for the furry Lagora.

Eric turns behind him as he sees Asiya charge at him, "W-wait!" He drops the diary and tries rolling out of the way.

Asiya thrusts her spear at Eric left and right, trying desperately to impale him, "Stand still so I can kill you!" Her eyes are void of remorse or mercy, only murder.

Eric tries to talk her out of it as he dodges her spear attacks, "I-I know that those thieves put you guys in a rough spot! You guys suffered, haven't you?"

Asiya jump stabs Eric, or at least tries to, completely uninterested in talk, only revenge.

Eric begins to run out of Asiya's house, still trying to dodge her spear, "P-please listen to me! I didn't read it to look into your deepest darkest secrets or your weaknesses! I read what they did to you all and I want to help!"

Asiya's rage grows as she shouts, "Liar!" She stabs Eric in the arm, "All of you Lagoras are liars! I don't want to see another one of you again!" She is filled with tears as she seethes with anger, still desperately trying to kill Eric.

 **The Drauk Village (Few seconds later)**

Asiya continues to chase Eric around the village, thrusting her spear at Eric as his arm drips with blood, "Our people almost died of thirst! We were in a famine! It was all because of you!" She throws her spear at Eric.

Eric has a split second to roll out of the way on account of his bleeding arm, the spear grazed his face, "S-stop! I had nothing to do with it! I just want to help! I don't want to fight you! I promise I'm not trying to trick you!"

Asiya stops, clenching her fist as her anger builds again, "Stop filling me with lies, Lagora!" She swiftly kicks him hard in the face, "Just… die!"

Eric falls to the ground as Asiya steps on his face hard, "I-I'm not lying…" He tries to pull Asiya's feet away from his face, he barely could budge it.

Asiya begins to grind her foot against Eric's face, "Just… disappear! You'll be a pile of blood when I grind you mercilessly into the ground!"

Eric feels the immense pain from Asiya's feet, her footwear is really sharp, digging painfully into his flesh, slowly tearing it, "I-I'm going to die… t-there's no stopping it… I'm really going to…"

That's until something crashes into the Drauk's water supply, not anything ordinary, either, it's a gigantic purple and green spider, larger than the Drauk's houses, reaches up to the cliffside.

Saari alerts Asiya, "Help, Chief Asiya!" Pulling her away from her Lagora killing fun, as the village gets flooded with their precious water.

Asiya and the rest of the Drauk hold their guard as they get drenched with water for a moment or two, she looks at the behemoth in astonishment, "W-what is that?! What does it want with us?!" She steps off of Eric's bleeding body, "Ladies, defend your village! Let me handle this thing!" She picks up her spear and she charges at the spider.

Saari's sister stands in front of Asiya, "We're your guards, we must fight this! You stay safe, we need you alive, chief!"

Asiya shouts, "No! You two keep our citizens safe, I'm the chief and I'll defend our village!" Points the guards to leave as she deals with the demonic arachnid, "I don't know what you are but I won't let you get away with hurting any of my citizens!"

Eric coughs as he tries to get up, holding his wounds with his hands, "Ugh… I'm… ok… just barely, though." He slowly gets up as he coughs in pain, "I'm all wet… what's going…" As he turns around, he sees Asiya going toe to toe with the tremendous hell spawn tarantula, "W-what in the name of god is that thing?"

Asiya doesn't respond to Eric as she tries to stab the spider, her spear doesn't penetrate the seemly indestructible exoskeleton of the beast, it tries to throw a fang into Asiya as she blocks it with her spear, "Grrragggh…" The spider's fang keeps trying to pierce Asiya, the both of them trying to take an advantage on one another. "Y-yoooooou… won't… get… my… village… go… to… hell…"

Eric sees just how hard Asiya fights to defend her village, he looks at the scared Drauks as they just watch helplessly as their chief risk her life for them. He looks back at Asiya as she parries with the spider, "W-what can I even do…?" He strains as he suffers with his wounds.

Asiya's strength diminishes as she gets tired holding back the beast, "Grrrrnnngghh…" The spider lays its weight on her, trying to get her to give in.

Despite how much pain Eric is and even though the one who did this to him is the one in trouble, Eric states, "AI or not, I cannot bear to see a lady in danger." He rushes over to Asiya's side, as fast as he could, limping, but still putting his all into his run.

Asiya whimpers slightly as she begins to slip up, "N-n-gahhh…" She then feels someone behind her push her forward to the spider, holding her hands steady with their own, she turns around, "You?!" She says in shock as she sees Eric helping her.

Eric nods, "I'm not letting you die! Come on! Let's kill this bitch!"

Asiya begins to deny Eric's request, "S-stay away! I got this!"

Eric shakes his head, "I'm not taking no for an answer and even I did, I still want to help you!" The both of them work together, he stabilizes Asiya's grip on her spear as they parry the spider off of them, "Ready?"

Asiya nods back, "Yes!" She puts her all into push, and so does the injured Lagora, they push with all their might towards the fanged marauder.

Eric notices another fang pulling back, about to lunge at them, he thinks to himself, "There's no way we can parry two at once… well… I guess there's only one thing…" He shouts out, "Segata Sanshiro!" He places his foot on Asiya's lowerback as he lifts her up, keeping his other foot firmly planted into the ground as he shifts his momentum backwards, pulling her over his head, throwing her away from the spider, "Segata Sanshiro!" He finishes.

Asiya notices in mid fling that she was in the air, and looking behind her, she sees the spider lunging its fangs towards Eric, without a way to defend himself, "E-Eric!"

Eric looks behind him, noticing his attempt of rescue was successful, he smiles, as two fangs pierce into his chest and out the other side.

Asiya lays on the ground as Eric is now spider food, "N-no!" She contemplates on how Eric just selflessly saved her life, ignoring those feelings, she charges at the spider with her spear that Eric flung with her, "I'll kill you!" She shouts as she stabs right through the mouth of the spider, without any thought whatsoever.

The spider begins to squeal in pain as it gets impaled, still holding Eric faintly alive body in its fangs.

The other two guards rush in to stab the spider as well, finishing it off with Asiya, the spider drops to the ground dead as Eric slides off of its fangs.

Asiya, scared and shaken up, pulls Eric's body to her side as she tries to wake him up, "Eric! Stay with me!" Tears run as no response was given.

Saari sighs sadly as she tells Asiya, "Sorry, chief… Eric's dead."

The other Drauks come in to see what's going on, with all of them in tears.

Asiya mourns as the Lagora she thought she loathes just sacrificed himself for her, "I-I treated him like garbage… and he just…" She couldn't even find it in her heart to finish her sentence as her tears fall on Eric's bloody face.

Eric's paw extends to Asiya's face, "I…I… I'm not that bad now, am I?" He smiles slightly before giving in to death, exhaling out his last breath of life. His arm droops down, lifeless.

* * *

 **There you have it, the first chapter of this story! And you ask how it's going to continue considering what just happened? Well… find out next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Another chapter of Project: Nintendo IS, and hopefully there might be some people reading it. Last time… the young lagora named Eric got himself into heaps of trouble with some Drauk tribe, and just for being a lagora, too. It's pure racism at its worst, and he's only human! That's what he gets for stealing Nintendo's new VR console, I guess.**

* * *

 **The next morning?**

Eric finds himself waking up in the same spot as before, with the same wakeup call, "Wake up! You got a lot of work to do!" Saari shouts at Eric after a swift kick in the gut, the same as before.

Eric groans as he wakes up, and looks at Saari, and then the rest of the settlement, "Wait… I… lived?" He checks himself to see the damage of his body, no sign of the giant spider fangs right through him, "It's as if it never happened."

Saari gets weirded out by Eric's mumbling but keeps her strict and harsh demeanor, "Enough! Now… the chief is now going to be your master today and you better listen to her every command, got it?!"

Eric then asks Saari, "But, what happened to the spider? Why is everything fixed? And I'm alright."

That only got Saari even more annoyed as she kicks him again, "Stop talking nonsense! You are doing it on purpose!" She begins to untie Eric from his post, "Now… shut up and stop talking such foolishness!"

Eric stammers as he's confused as to why Saari doesn't remember that, "B-but, it's true!" He gets dragged along against his will without nothing to eat.

 **Asiya's Home (A bit later)**

Saari drags Eric to Asiya's tent and she gives the ropes holding Eric to her, "Here's your slave, I hope you work him to the bone, chief!" She giggles as she says this deviously.

Eric sweatdrops, "You girls are seriously enjoying this a bit too much." Playing along for now and ignoring what happened until it's time.

Saari begins to leave and Asiya begins to look at Eric fiercely, "You got a name, Lagora? I have to call you something if you are going to work for me, correct?"

Eric raises his eyebrows confusingly, "I already told you my name."

Asiya begins to stand up from her seat, angrily, "Oh, you are talking back to me, are you? I'm going to work you harder now!"

Eric then begins to ask Asiya, "But wait… what happened to the spider and I thought we are cool now, I mean… I saved you from it, after all."

Asiya then growls at Eric, getting her spear ready to stab Eric, "I never heard such a ridiculous thing in my life! It's probably some dream you had!"

Eric raises his paws in defense, "Wait… I'm telling the truth, it did happen and it's going to happen again!" He sweatdrops as he begins to see that Asiya isn't buying any of this.

Asiya puts her spear down and growls again at Eric, "You are only saying that so you don't have to work!"

Eric shakes his head, "No! I'm being serious! You all are in big danger! Please believe me!"

Asiya kicks Eric to the ground, getting one foot on his chest with her spear jabbing at him, "Why should I believe you, Lagora? You all are nothing but double crossing, sneaky crooks! I'm never trusting your kind again!"

Eric grabs the spear and tries to pry it away from his chest, "I wouldn't lie to you! Those were just filthy rogue bandits! It doesn't mean that all Lagoras are this way!"

Asiya takes a moment to listen to that and then drives the chest harder as Eric tries to pull it away from him, "How do you know that?! I bet you're one of them and you're trying to trick me so your friends can attack us again!"

Eric groans as he slipped out something that wouldn't seem believable, "N-n-n-no! I… err… I just assumed, ok? I'm not one of them. And… I promise that at sundown, there's going to be a giant spider invading your village and we need to get ready and try to stop it! Please!" He tries his best to make it sound as sincere as possible, filling his words with so much heart.

Asiya begins to take it as she pulls away her spear, "If you are so sure about that, then, I suppose we could keep a lookout for your stupid bug of yours. But if it's not real and you are lying…"

Eric gulps, "Then you are going to kill me?"

Asiya nods, "Indeed." Making her point very crystal clear.

Eric then shrugs, "Alright then." He then mutters to himself, "It's not like it'll be permanent anyway."

Asiya glares at Eric as she almost heard Eric's mutter, "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing! I just mumbling about how awesome of a chief you are!" Eric says, smiling at Asiya. He thinks to himself, "If I'm going to get on her good side, I better do what she says and complement her a bunch. That's how it works in these types of RPGs, right? And from what I read on that diary on my last playthrough, she's just playing tough."

Asiya makes a small noise as she is surprised about Eric's reply, "You are just trying to get my guard down! It's going to take a whole lot more than that, Lagora!"

Eric shrugs as he shakes his head, "Oh no, but I meant that! I mean, you did capture me and make me do what you wanted me to do all on your watchful eye, right? I think those bandits opened your eyes and made you realize just how great of a leader you are!"

Asiya begins to blush a bit as she just replaces it with anger, "Stop! I don't want you to say anymore! I don't want to hear compliments from a filthy Lagora like you!"

Eric sweatdrops as he shouts in his head, "She's freaking stone solid! And all because I picked the wrong race!" He then replies, "I'm sorry, Asiya. I'll make it up to you by coming up with an original plan to stop that spider. We Lagoras are cunning so we can make a foolproof plan on the spot."

"Damn right, you will! But don't act so nonchalantly! You look so suspicious doing so! You could be coming up with a plan of escape for all I know!" Asiya roared at the top of her voice, making sure that everyone in the village can hear her.

Eric shrugs as he sweatdrops at Asiya, "Can I ever win with this girl?!" He questions in his head as he blows her power cry off.

 **A bit later**

Eric stands around as he thinks of a way to stop the spider, "Hmm… a full-on army to pin the spider and then stab it in the chest? No, that's too risky, we could lose a few people. Flood it and let it drown? No, that didn't even work last time… wait… can I…?" He sees some rocks over by the canyon that holds the cave of his spawn point. "Yes… it could work…"

All the drauk look at Eric as he stands around, getting all angry with him and they look like they want to complain so bad. Eric shouts, "I got it!" He runs over to Asiya's tent.

 **Asiya's Tent (After a brainstorm)**

As Eric barges in Asiya's tent, what he saw instead was something he might never unsee again, "W-w-whoa…" Eric says in his head because if he actually spoke, he could die right now.

Asiya is in her underwear, underwear that shows just how well toned her legs are and especially her ass, Eric can't help but stare at his discovery, even if he is interested in human women, he can't help but deny that Asiya's body is very luxurious to look at, like he stumbled upon a forbidden treasure in a lost tomb. Eric fully knows that he really needs to leave but he can't take his eyes off of her as she begins to slowly put on her golden armor on, piece by piece.

As soon as Asiya finishes putting her armor on, she turns her back towards Eric who is ogling her backside for a good while now, of course, as any woman's reaction is in this situation, is very hostile. "OH, DID YOU GET A GOOD LOOK, YOU PERVERT?!" She quickly grabs her staff and charges at Eric.

Eric immediately runs off as soon as Asiya noticed him but it was already too late, she's on the run for vengeance, "W-wait! I didn't know I wasn't supposed to be there!"

 **Drauk Settlement**

Asiya runs faster towards Eric with her spear, "AND YOU WENT IN ON YOUR OWN ACCORD! I DIDN'T ASK FOR YOU TO GO INTO MY TENT WHILE I WAS CHANGING INTO MY BATTLE ARMOR! AND, YOU KNOW WHAT?! THIS IS THE LAST TIME YOU'LL GET TO SEE ME OR ANYONE ELSE NAKED!" She leaps towards Eric with a jump kick and knocks him down to the ground.

The other girls are looking as this happened, questioning if they should get involved, but since it's their leader, they stay out of it.

Eric turns around as he lays on the ground and sees Asiya's spear coming towards him, he makes an X with his arms, "W-wait! I just only barged in because I figured out how to stop the spider! You can kill me after it's said and done!"

Asiya's arms shake as she holds her spear at Eric, so very much want to end his life, "F-fine." She pulls the spear away from him and gets off of him, "So help me if it turns out that this idea is garbage…"

Eric gets up, "It's not… okay? He takes a deep breath and exhales to refresh himself, "What if we constructed a catapult to go against the giant spider with?" He then puts his hands together to pray that she doesn't kill him.

Asiya just stands there for a good long moment to let that idea sink in, "AND WHERE ARE WE GOING TO GET THE PARTS TO CONSTRUCT IT?! HUH, MR. SMART GUY?!" She raises her spear at Eric again.

Eric flinches, "I-I can get it, okay?! I… err… I know how to build certain stuff and a catapult is rudimentary enough to be crafted, but sufficient to battle the spider with. And you don't have to have anyone get hurt as it'll do the job before the spider even sets foot in your tribe."

Asiya sets her spear aside and asks Eric in a stern tone, "So… you expect me to have you just walk out of the village and collect the material to build the catapult?"

Eric nods, "Yep."

Asiya raises her voice as she asks another question, "And you freaking expect me to have you return here afterwards?!"

Eric nods again, "Pretty much."

"HOW AM I GOING TO SUSPECT THAT YOU WILL COME BACK HERE?! YOU MIGHT JUST USE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO JUST LEAVE AS THE SPIDER COME AND ATTACK US WHICH I DOUBT EVEN EXISTS AT ALL! IT COULD AS WELL BE A CONVOLUTED WAY OF HAVING YOU TO WEASEL YOUR WAY OUT OF PAYING BACK YOUR DEBT TO US!" Asiya screams at the top of her lungs as she spits at Eric.

Eric sticks his fingers in his ears as the volume that Asiya was going at was too loud for him to handle, "If you don't trust me then you could have one of your Drauk villagers spectate to see if I actually get the materials or not."

Asiya grabs Eric by the shoulders and screams, "HELL NO! I'M NOT TRUSTING YOU WITH ONE OF MY OWN, WHERE YOU CAN ATTACK THEM WHEN THEY ARE VULNERABLE! I'M COMING WITH YOU IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!"

Eric smiles, "Okay." He then takes Asiya's hands off of him as he begins walking out the front gate, "Let's go, chief, we better start collecting early if we want to build that catapult in time for the big showdown with the spider beast."

Asiya runs off after him, "Oh… no, it's not that easy, mister. You're going to be doing all the work!"

Eric nods, "I'm fine with that, I would like to borrow some tools to extract the materials, though."

Asiya sighs, "Very well." She runs off to the tent that have the tools they need.

Eric calls out as she gets the tools, "And my bag, too! I need that to carry the tools and materials with!"

Asiya calls back in an annoyed tone, "Fine! Anything else, your majesty?!" Dripping with sarcasm as well.

Eric snickers at Asiya's sarcastic response to his request, "I think we'll be good now! We won't be long at all!"

Asiya comes back with all the stuff in her hand and hands them off to Eric, "You mean YOU'LL be good now. I'm not helping you, I'm only here to make sure you don't run off."

Eric puts all the stuff into his bag and puts it on his waist, "Why do you keep thinking I'm just going to run off? Where am I going to go? I don't know where everything is. I just got to this wo… err… I mean desert."

Asiya looks at Eric suspiciously as he retracts a word, "What were about to say there?"

Eric replies, "That I just got to this wonderful desert. And… I can't really say that now considering that I'm a prisoner here."

Asiya sighs as she looks to the side, "I really don't care anymore. You better hurry up on collecting these materials and constructing that catapult."

Eric nods, "Of course, and let us be off!" He begins to trek to the gate as Asiya pulls him back. "Um… what's the holdup?"

Asiya then demands, "I'm not taking a single step on your accord so you're carrying me through the desert." She forcefully gets on Eric's back.

Eric grabs on to Asiya's legs as he is unwillingly brought forward this task, "Are you serious?"

Asiya pulls on Eric's ears, "Does it look like I'm serious?! And if you move your hands up even an inch higher, I'm stabbing you with my spear, got that?!"

Eric nods, "As you wish!" He begins to walk out of the Drauk Settlement. "Don't worry everyone! I promise that your settlement will be saved!"

Asiya bops him on the head, "Less talk and more run, and I mean it… run!"

Eric begins running off, carrying Asiya on his back who is twice his height.

 **Just outside the Drauk Settlement**

Eric stands in front of the settlement, looking around in amazement as he feels the sand get deeper and it takes his feet in, "Whooooa… so this is what the desert looks like! It really is an endless land of sand! It looks like it goes for miles! Where can I even start?"

Eric yelps as Asiya kicks her heels in his sides, "You're not here to gaze at the sights! Hurry up and pick a destination and go there and find the parts for your stupid catapult!"

"That's easier said in done, I mean… where do I even start? Can you at least tell me where to go? I'm doing this blindly." Eric says with a scoff as he looks around, looking perplexed at the vast vacant valley of nothing but sand.

"Sigh… you are seriously helpless, you know that?" Asiya says as she sighs at Eric in the nicest tone that she have done yet, as if Eric was an ignorant child. "Alright, fine, I'll guide you to where you need to go but that's it."

Eric begins to smile, "Are you freaking serious?! Thank you!" He beams as wide as he has ever done as they actually meet a mutual understanding for a change.

Asiya scoffs lightly as she looks to the side, "You are not being genuine. That much is clear." She actually looks like she's tired of what was going on or is very relaxed right now, "I can't expect a lagora to actually be grateful for my help or anything but themselves."

Eric begins to walk out there as he gives his two cent on the matter, "Well, maybe, just maybe, you can actually be wrong about that. You don't know… I might be a lagora who ACTUALLY CARES." He makes the last two words very well direct and loud.

"Yeah, well, I'm not taking that chance, even if you actually mean it. There's a chance where you can be easily swayed by the lagora bandits and just ambush us again…" Asiya begins sounding very sad as she reminiscents about what happened that was written in her diary that Eric has read in the last life.

Eric can feel just how sad she feels right now, he tries to comfort her the best he can, "I'm sorry that happened to you… I know my words don't mean much but… I just wish I wasn't what you hate the most. I think if that happened, you wouldn't hate me so much. I know I was a sarcastic jerk to you girls but I didn't mean it out of stabbing you in the back as more as playfully teasing. Truth be told that I actually really want to be liked and be helped in some way, but I guess… I just have to pay back some stupid tribes debt for them."

Asiya… begins to cry a little… just a little, before bottling it up again, "I cannot let you make me feel for you, lagora! You all are just trying to trick me! You just shut up and let me guide you to where you need to go!"

Eric sighs, "Alright…" Knowing that Asiya wouldn't believe him even though he hoped that she would.

 **Much later**

Eric and Asiya arrives at a cave, way far out ahead to where the settlement was, "So… it was just straight ahead? The whole time?" Eric points out as he head inside.

Asiya pulls on his ears, "Less talk and more work!" As if she's pulling on the reins of a racing horse.

"O-ow! Okay!" Eric squeals as he enters the dark rocky cave which looks pretty similar to the one he entered this world in.

 **Inside the cave**

Inside the cave was and and I mean very dark, and littered was a bunch of sand and abandoned vases, clearly no one has touched this cave for years. It gets Eric thinking, _"Hmmm… maybe this game takes place in a post apocalyptic timeline, kinda like another game with a bunch of sand… with midriffed ladies as well, errr… what was it called again?"_ Eric moves his eyes up as he thinks of the title of the game, not really about what's around him.

Eric's hands move down as he begins to relax them, Asiya clearly takes notice right away, "HEY! Focus here! You're here to save your own hide, you better be thinking about where to find the materials!"

Eric gives Asiya an unamused expression, pulling her up on his back again, regaining his grip on her, _"So much for trying to be a team member, actually, I might need to look around better."_ Without giving no warning or consideration, he… drops Asiya on her rear.

No surprises, Asiya roars at Eric for doing this, "YOU GOT SOME NERVE, LAGORA! YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST WARN ME SO I WOULD HAVE STOPPED YOU FROM LETTING ME GO!"

Eric grins with a chuckle, "That's the point." He turns to Asiya and gives her a shrug with a smug smile, "I mean… I do have to drop the dead weight here, right?"

Asiya grips on her spear tightly, gritting her teeth, "You go some balls, you know that? I think you deserve some discipline!" She goes to stab Eric, but… he swiftly dodges it, "Hold still, DAMN YOU!"

Eric chuckles yet again and goes into a laugh, "You are very predictable now, and if you did stab me, then how are you going to get that catapult made and besides… I dropped you so that I could look in the sand over there."

Asiya lets out a scoff as she slams the bottom of her spear on the ground, "Just because you got some hotshot idea doesn't make you in charge, lagora! Just a warning to you… if you ever step out of line, you are seriously going to get it!"

Eric puts his hands on his hips, looks to the side, not taking her seriously anymore as he already knows her secret, "I'm not stepping out of line, I'm just walking on it, like a tightrope. I'm pretty good at that, also… your guards aren't around, are they?" He puts his hands up as he walks towards Asiya, who is walking back, getting her guard up, slowly getting angrier with this lagora's advances, he quickly snatches the spear from her, twirling it around. "You did forget I'm a thief, right? Taking this is child's play."

"WHY YOU…" Asiya charges at Eric, who quickly dodges her, "I knew it… you are JUST LIKE THE OTHERS!" She grips her hands tightly, looking at them, "And I foolishly feel for another trap of theirs!" She then darts back at Eric, "Well go ahead! Get it over with! Kill me! You know you want to!" She kneels down, getting ready to face her demise for her foolishness, "I'm not worthy of being their chief… I cannot protect them! Even from the likes of you..." Asiya begin to cry, looking down on the ground as the tears fall, "So… go ahead and end me already!"

Eric, as Asiya was giving him this speech, is, the entire time, searching through the sand with her spear, he looks at her, "Oh, did you say something?"

Asiya's eyes turn cartoony, with tears still running, but angry this time, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! AREN'T YOU GOING TO KILL ME OR NOT! YOU DID STEAL MY SPEAR, SO WHAT'S STOPPING YOU?!"

Eric laughs, "The way you try so hard to take your pride seriously is kinda cute." He sees a scorpion come out of one of the sand piles and harpoons it, "Now, you see why I took it? I know if I asked for it, you wouldn't let me." He picks the scorpion up, which is now dead, "So… do you… eat these?" Waving it around as it's on the end of the spear.

"OF COURSE WE DON'T! A-AND HOW DARE YOU TAKE LIGHTLY TO MY WAY OF COMMANDING!" Clearly, Eric's actions is actually breaking her, her tears continue to fall, and not only that, but she feels embarrassed for breaking. Eric's face reflects on her eyes, _"Just what's with this guy?! How can he at one point be at my mercy and now… I'm at his?! I know he's going to just betray me when I'm not looking, I cannot fall for his whims!"_ She stops crying, clutches the ground as she pulls herself up, and stand up proudly yet again, with her stoic face showing again, "Do whatever you want, I don't care! I'm going to wait here until you finish your stupid tomfoolery!" She looks away from him.

Eric waves Asiya off as he continues to look through the sand piles, "M'kay." He says to her in response as well. He continues to look through the cave thoroughly, can only find sand and rocks, nothing useful for the catapult at all, "So… are you sure we can find wood in a damp cave? I'm starting to think this whole idea of mine is starting to be more difficult than I thought?" He scratches behind his head as he ponders.

"Ooooh… you FINALLY figured it out, didn't you?! Well, as you can plainly see, we don't have any trees for you to cut down to make that stupid catapult of yours! Not even petrified branches!" Asiya roars at Eric, crossing her arms impatiently, she takes a deep breath and exhales, "You got one more sand pile to look and then we're going back to the settlement." She glares at him again, "I suppose you should consider yourself lucky that I'm not going to kill you after all."

Eric grins at that and exclaims, "Well, alright! Hey, maaaaybe you could just exile me and we can call it even" He chuckles a bit.

"Yeeah, nice try, you're still going to be our servant for the rest of your natural born life. Now, hurry up and pick a damn sand pile!" Asiya roars out to the joking lagora.

Eric laughs even more, walking deeper into the cave, he sees that the end of the cave is a mountain of sand, "Jackpot!" He begins digging frantically into it, with his hands as the spear won't cut it this time, "..." He stares at what he discovers, he gulps which echoes in the cave, he gets up from the ground, picks up Asiya's spear and rushes back to her, comedically holds onto her leg like a scared puppy dog, "W-we should go… now!"

Of course, Asiya blushes with anger from this, "Just because my guards aren't here to punish you DOESN'T mean you can do whatever you please! Now, what the hell has gotten into you?!"

Eric quickly gets up and covers Asiya's snout, "Shhh… it's here… sleeping."

Asiya kicks Eric off of her, "I'm not going to fall for your tricks, Lagora! Now, I'm going over there and prove to you that you are just sherking your responsibilities!" She grabs her spear and walks over to the sand pile, Eric stays behind, shaking in fear. Approaching the sand mound, she inspects it carefully, "I know you Lagoras are distrustworthy but skittish as well? You prove yourself to be truly a pathetic race." She twirls her spear a bit before stabbing it into the sand pile, "And just like that, I've shown that my race is not to be messed with." She turns to Eric as she tells him off, but unknowing to her, something massive and emerging from the sand, with the spear still in it.

And Eric was completely right, what he discovered in the sand is the gigantic spider that he faced in his previous life, it approaches Asiya, raising a fang, getting ready to pierce her in the chest with it. _"Not this time!"_ Eric screams in his head, charging towards Asiya.

Before Asiya could react, Eric pushes her out of harm's way, landing right on top of her, "Y-you…" Asiya is so angry that she couldn't say anything right now, but she stops herself as soon as she sees that gigantic fang that she narrowly avoided thanks to Eric, "...A-are right…" Nothing else can surprise her as much as what she witnessed.

Eric gets up quickly, nods to Asiya, "Yeah, yeah, I know. We better get the hell out of here before it kills us!" Eric puts Asiya over his shoulder, rushing off with her in his hands, "I better scurry off now!" He exclaims as he leaps off some rocks and jumps back to the entrance of the cave, avoiding the spiders attacks, but only narrowly.

 **Back Outside**

Eric dashes away from the spider as quick as his little lagora legs could carry him, as well as making sure he has a good grip on Asiya, but from the way he's holding her, she's not too fond of it, "H-hey! Watch where you're grabbing!" Looking back at him, red in the face as Eric is clearly breaking her ground rules of where to hold her, "Why the hell do you even care to save me anyway?! You do know that if you weren't carrying me, you could easily run away from this spider!"

Eric shouts out angrily, but as well as in a panic, "Shut the hell up! I'm saving you because I WANT to! Did you ever think of that?! I may be a crook, but I am not heartless! You should be grateful that you're even alive right now, because if it wasn't for me! You would have been stabbed in the heart!"

Asiya's eyes widen, she stammers a bit, trying to find a comeback from Eric's words, "B-but… y-you… a…"

"A Lagora?! Who the hell cares?! I'm a good samaritan first and a lagora second! Now… PLEASE! I need to get away from this freaking spider before it kills us!" Eric desperately says as he loses stamina from running so hard, the spider almost reaches them.

Asiya looks at Eric run so hard, looking into his eyes, and into his heart, pondering on his words, _"He… he's being… sincere?! I can't believe it… I think… I may be wrong about them… it's like… he's the lagora that I wanted the leader of the bandits to be…"_ She nods to Eric and jumps off of him, running ahead of him, holding out her hand to him, "Grab on! I'll take the lead to outrunning this beast!"

Eric pants heavily, catching up speed, grabbing her hand. Asiya hoists Eric up on her shoulder this time, "I'm terribly sorry I distrusted you, lagora. It's just that after that encounter, I had to put my settlement under tight security and just assume that every one of you is like that. I think… I'm willing to give your kind a second chance. You deserved it."

"Uh.. that's all well and good, but I think we should get rid of this spider before we discuss any of this." Eric nervously says to Asiya, gulping afterword, beading sweat.

Asiya nods, she skids to a stop and leaps towards the spider, "Good idea, I believe that the best way to get rid of it… is by killing it!"

The spider raises all of its legs, getting ready to close in on the two, ready to devour its prey, "A-Asiya! W-what are you doing?!" Eric yelps in fear.

"Trust me… I know what I'm doing." Asiya bravely states as she grabs onto her spear, it begins to glow as well as her, "Dragon's Bite!" The end of the spear begins to grow into a large fang, sinking deeper into the spider's body, "Stay away from my settlement, foul thing!" Asiya, with every fiber of her being, sends the spider down to the sandy ground, stabbing it clean through the spear. It unleashes a death cry, before going to a death curl.

Eric's eyes are white circles from what he witnessed, "Um…" He jumps off of Asiya, walking back a bit from her, trying to take this in.

Asiya retracts her spear from the spider's corpse, a ton of its blood oozes out as well, the spear goes back to its original form, she walks towards Eric, smiling at him, in a completely different attitude then ever before, "Well, shall we go home?"

Eric raises an index finger, with his face filled with confusion, "...I have several questions I would like to ask you."

Asiya tilts her head to Eric, "Hmm?" Before realising what Eric is referring to, "Oh! What you saw, it's just a chief ability I have. I have several more, but I only use that one when it's an emergency."

Eric then claps his hands together, inhaling and then says, "Then what's the point in running?!"

"B-because…" Asiya collapses on the ground, completely exhausted, "It does a number on my stamina… if you would be so kind into carrying me home, I'd appreciate it."

Eric scratches his nose, pacing back and forth in front of Asiya, "Gee… I dunno… I think your people in your settlement will find this pretty fishy when they find you all battered up and me dragging you like this, when they don't know that you changed your mind."

Asiya crawls towards Eric's feet, climbing onto his and goes over his shoulder, "Please… I'm counting on you… I'll even tell them to drop their weapons…"

Eric smiles, "Alright. Sounds good to me." He puts Asiya's arm over his shoulder, and walks back to the Drauk settlement.

 **The Drauk Settlement (Much later)**

Eric arrives to the Drauk Settlement entrance, with their chief over his shoulders, "I'm back… heh heh." Expecting the Drauk guards to gang up on him, "Huh?" That didn't happen. "That's odd… why aren't the guards showing up?"

"S-something's amiss…" Asiya weakly says, looking at Eric's puzzled look.

"So… the chief finally show up, has she?" A cocky and familiar tone rings out, Eric, approaching closer, sees the Lagora bandits' leader, "We were waiting for you to come back. I didn't think you would finally let down your guard. It makes it so much easier taking over your pathetic settlement." He grins eerily to Eric and Asiya. Surrounding him are the rest of the Drauk, tied up in rope as his men are holding them down, even the guards. "And all to thank for this is that Lagora! We couldn't have done it without him!" He points one of his blades to Eric, laughing at the two.

* * *

 **Well, certainly this has turned out for the worse. What will happen now that the Lagora bandits have arrived and what can Eric do at his current state? Find out next time!**


End file.
